South Waterfront is for indies

I’m shooting a day-to-night timelapse in South Waterfront and have some time to kill. The South Waterfront area takes a lot of crap for being a highrise wasteland of condos no one lives in. But if you live in Portland and want to film a scene with a skyscraper environment without the hassles of random people interrupting your shot, it’s a filmmaker’s dream. The very deadness of SoWat makes it ideal for the budgetless director in Portland (ok, me).

You’ve got skyscrapers, busses, the streetcar, the tram, the river. And now there’s even a really cute park. It all feels pretty generic (in a good way). It could be any city.

Portland is trying to get Hollywood to film in Portland. I’m trying to get Portlanders to film in South Waterfront. Gus Van Sant already owns the best parts of Portland anyway, so whatever you shoot anywhere else is basically a homage.